M: Hello everyone! Welcome back to EnglishPod! My name is Marco.

E: And I’m Erica.

M: And today we’re gonna be going to one of the least favorite places of many, many people.

E: So, it must be the dentist.

M: Exactly, that place where you have to go every six months, but you…

E: You probably don’t go…

M: Hehe. You probably don’t. I know, I don’t go…

E: No…

M: Every six months.

E: You need, though.

M: So, yeah, we’re gonna be going to the dentist and, of course, we’re gonna be looking at a lot of great vocabulary, related to teeth and all that crazy stuff dentist do.

E: Yes, and we’ll also learn some really interesting phrases, um, so, Marco, let’s get started with our “vocabulary preview”.

Voice: Vocabulary preview.

M: Okay, in vocabulary preview today we have two words. Let’s take a look at the first one – toothache.

E: Toothache.

M: Toothache.

E: Toothache.

M: Okay, so, we’ve seen before this, uh… this ending “-ache”, right?

E: Right.

M: It means that hurts.

E: Exactly.

M: So, again, a toothache would be…

E: A hurting tooth.

M: A hurting tooth.

E: Yes.

M: We can also say stomachache…

E: Uhu.

M: Headache.

E: Yeah.

M: Pretty much everything can… [Comment: I love this slang phrase pretty much; it means - almost, basically, in most cases, most of the time, etc.]

E: Ache.

M: Ache.

E: Yeah.

M: Okay.

E: So, our next word – x-ray.

M: X-ray.

E: X-ray. X, hyphen (“-“), R, A, Y.

M: Okay, pretty easy word.

E: Uhu.

M: So, when you go to the doctor, many times you’re getting x-ray.

E: It is a picture of your bones.

M: Right, so, that’s an x-ray.

E: Alright, well, we’re going to hear both of these words in the dialogue. So, why don’t we listen as Gary visits his dentist?

DIALOGUE, FIRST TIME

M: Okay, that always happens the dentist says “no, it’s not gonna heart, don’t worry about it”…

E: But it always hurts much more than he says.

M: Exactly. So, in this dialogue we saw some interesting words, when the dentist was describing what problems Gary had.

E: Yes. So, why don’t we look at those now in “language takeaway”?

Voice: Language takeaway.

M: Alright, let’s take a look at our first word.

E: So, Gary said that his face was all swollen.

M: Swollen.

E: Swollen.

M: Swollen.

E: So, swollen is an adjective, right Marco?

M: Right, so, his face is or was swollen.

E: It was bigger.

M: Yeah, his face was bigger than normal.

E: Yes, often when you hurt yourself, that part of your body becomes swollen.

M: Swollen, right.

E: Uhu.

M: So, you have to put some ice on it usually and then the swelling will go down.

E: And that’s the noun, the swelling.

M: Right.

E: Uhu.

M: The swelling. And, well, the verb, to swell.

E: Alright, three words for the price of one.

M: So, let’s listen to some examples of how we would use the swelling, swollen, and to swell.

Voice: Example one.

A: My nose is swollen; it’s the size of a foot ball.

Voice: Example two.

B: Put some ice on you foot and the swelling will go down.

Voice: Example three.

C: I got bitten by a spider and my hand is swelling up.

E: Aright, so…

M: Uhu.

E: Gary’s face was swollen and he thought that it was his wisdom teeth.

M: Wisdom teeth.

E: Wisdom teeth.

M: Okay, so, this is interesting, wisdom is like wise.

E: Yeah, knowledge.

M: Knowledge.

E: Yeah.

M: So, these teeth, they’re not knowledgeable, but they’re called wisdom teeth.

E: They are the teeth that grow last in your mouth, right?

M: Right, they are the last teeth at the very end of your mouth.

E: Yes, and usually you get them when you are about twenty.

M: Uhu. And since they come out at this age, sometimes they interfere… they, uh, hurt a little bit, so you have to get them taken out. [Comment: (1) interfere in this context means to intersect or to impede, for example, these two teeth interfere, they impede each other; (2) to get a tooth taken out means to remove a tooth; you might also say to get a tooth pulled, for example, I got my wisdom teeth pulled this morning]

E: Yes, alright, wisdom teeth.

M: Wisdom teeth, okay. Now, for our next word and something that we all got as children. Cavity.

E: Cavity.

M: A cavity.

E: A cavity. It’s a hole in your tooth.

M: A hole in your tooth.

E: Uhu.

M: And it’s caused by…

E: Too much sugar.

M: Too much sugar, right?

E: Yeah.

M: Or not brushing your teeth enough.

E: Yeah.

M: So, that’s why everyone had it, I think, as children cavities.

E: I never had a cavity.

M: Really?

E: Yeah.

M: Wow, didn’t have much sugar?

E: I guess I was a bit of a health nut when I was a kind [Comment: a health nut basically refers to a person who obsessed with their health and, particularly, with healthy nutrition]

M: Uh, okay.

E: Well, no, I wasn’t, my mom was.

M: Hehe.

E: No, I guess not. Alright, but enough about my eating habits, let’s talk about our next word, crown. [Comment: we talked about eating habits in the lesson New Year Resolution]

M: Crown.

E: A crown.

M: So, a crown, this is interesting.

E: We’re not taking kings and queens.

M: Right, that’s the first thing that comes to mind, right?

E: Yeah.

M: No, a crown is actually the visible part of your teeth.

E: Okay, so, there’s one part of your tooth that’s inside that you can’t see, right?

M: Right, that’s called the root.

E: Yes, so, when he said “your crown is loose”, what’s he talking really about the actual tooth?

M: So, sometimes people will have… will lose a tooth or have a really bad cavity.

E: Uhu.

M: So, the dentist needs to make a new crown or a new visible part of the tooth for you, so, sometimes it’ll be made of gold…

E: Yep, or…

M: You know…

E: Or porcelain. [Comment: porcelain is a hard ceramic material; for example, porcelain dishes]

M: Porcelain.

E: Yeah.

M: Exactly.

E: So, a crown, it’s like, ah, a really, really, really big filling.

M: Uhu.

E: Yep.

M: A crown, so his crown needed to be refitted or put back into place.

E: Yes, now our final word, a filling. [Comment: don’t confuse this word with another one, which sounds similarly - feeling]

M: Filling.

E: A filling.

M: A filling.

E: So, I just said this word previously.

M: Uhu.

E: Now, when you have a cavity…

M: Uhu.

E: You need to fill it in.

M: Right, you need to fill it with something.

E: Yes.

M: It’s usually some sort of paste.

E: Aha. And it gets really hard…

M: And it gets…

E: Just like your tooth.

M: Exactly, so, then it covers up this cavity. Filling.

E: A filling.

M: I have many fillings, I wasn’t, uh, very healthy as a kid.

E: Alright, not a good tooth brusher.

M: Hehe. Exactly. So, why don’t we listen to this dialogue again and then we’ll come back and talk a little bit about some of the interesting phrases, that the doctor used.

DIALOGUE, SECOND TIME (Slow pace)

E: Well, the dentist used there really interesting phrases and I wanna look at the first one. What seems to be the problem? [Comment: It’s a sort of recap, because we’ve dealt with this phrase already in the lesson I Can See Clearly Now]

M: What seems to be the problem?

E: What seems to be the problem?

M: Okay, very easy, little sentence to ask somebody “what’s wrong”.

E: Exactly.

M: Right.

E: Um, and… I mean these are small easy words, but when you put them together they sound really natural, um, and… and really fluent.

M: Uhu. So, if you ask somebody what seems to be the problem, it’s very polite…

E: Yep.

M: And it’s a very good way of asking “what’s wrong”.

E: Yes.

M: Alright.

E: Our next phrase also made up of simple words. Let’s have a look.

M: Let’s have a look.

E: Let’s have a look.

M: So, this is a phrase, that maybe your mechanic of your dentist or your doctor will say.

E: Or anyone.

M: Right.

E: Your…

M: Let’s have a look

E: Let’s look at it and see what the problem is.

M: Hm, okay, let’s have a look.

E: Okay, and our final phrase. It doesn’t look good.

M: It doesn’t look good.

E: It doesn’t look good.

M: So, I can use this phrase for an object, right?

E: Yeah.

M: Like, uh, this house doesn’t look good.

E: Yes, but here it’s used a little bit differently. So, why don’t we listen to some examples to help us understand the meaning?

Voice: Example one.

A: John told me it doesn’t look good for me, I probably won’t get the job.

Voice: Example two.

B: It doesn’t look good for Michael Jackson. He’s in a lot of debt.

Voice: Example three.

C: You know, the economy doesn’t look very good.

M: Okay, so, in the examples we can see, that they are using it for the situation.

E: Yeah.

M: It looks maybe problematic.

E: Yeah, it’ll… so, when you say it doesn’t look good, you basically mean… there are going to be problems.

M: Uhu. Alright, it doesn’t look good.

E: Yeah.

M: Okay, so, great phrases, great words, let’s listen to our, uh, “Gary at the dentist” one more time, then we’ll come back and talk a little bit more.

DIALOGUE, THIRD TIME

E: Well, Marco, um, speaking of dentists, have you ever had an experience like this, where you’ve spat out the tooth at the dentist?

M: Hehe. Well, nothing so, uh, serious as this, but, actually, recently when I was in Cambodia…

E: Alright, you called us from Cambodia.

M: Yeah, Hehe. Well, our taxi driver offered us to have some local food…

E: Uhu.

M: And he said “well, we’re gonna have dog”, so that was…

E: Oh, dear…

M: Interesting, uh, actually it wasn’t that bad, it was pretty good, but, you know, if you get around the fact that it’s a dog…

E: So, what does this have to do with your teeth?

M: I was eating it and I bit a bone…

E: Oh.

M: That was hidden…

E: Okay.

M: And I chipped my tooth.

E: So, you broke part of your tooth.

M: Yeah, like half of it… which I… I had already chipped before, so I had to go to the dentist and so the dentist created a new crown with… not with gold or porcelain, actually with a paste.

E: Ouh.

M: Aha, and then it becomes hard and it just looks normal. It doesn’t even look like I have a… a fake crown, sort of say.

E: But, dentist can be really expensive, so how much did this cost?

M: W… Hehe. Well, this was for the bargain price of ten dollars. [Comment: for a bargain price means for a relatively small amount of money; we’ve talked about bargaining before in the What a Bargain lesson]

E: Ten dollars.

M: Ten dollars…

E: Nice.

M: That’s how much it costs.

E: So, we should all go to Cambodia for dentistry.

M: For… yeah, because actually he was pretty good. He looked very young, though, I was kind of scared, because when he walked in he looked like he was nineteen, but I asked him his age and he was like thirty.

E: Okay, well, you’re very trusting. [Comment: trusting is an adjective and it refers to a person who believes other people easily]

M: Hehe. Yeah, so, I imagine that you guys maybe have some dental experiences. So, why don’t you come to our website and tell us all about it.

E: Yeah, visit us at englishpod.com and you can find lots more resources, uh, for learning English there. Well, guys thanks for listening and until next time… Bye!

M: Good bye!